


absolute destiny apocalypse

by dancingassassin



Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Alternate Universe, Revolutionary Girl Utena AU, Ribbons being Ribbons, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 15:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6245455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingassassin/pseuds/dancingassassin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rose bride has to carry the power of revolution within him - Ribbons neglected to mention how the power gets there.</p><p>Revolutionary Girl Utena AU</p><p>written for EmbyronicHarmonic</p>
            </blockquote>





	absolute destiny apocalypse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EmbryonicHarmonic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmbryonicHarmonic/gifts).



It wasn’t uncommon for Tieria to get a summons to the dueling arena. In fact, it was almost _common_ for that to happen. The strangeness of this event was the timing. Usually there was a fancy note artfully placed somewhere on the Ohtori campus – somewhere that he frequented, of course. This time he’d just gotten a random text message in the middle of the night.

[from: Ribbons Almark] be at the dueling arena at 1 am sharp. be sure Setsuna comes with you.

No mention of anything that was needed. Just to be there with Setuna. It was ominous. And he didn’t exactly like the feeling that was forming in his stomach.

Tieria rolled out of his bed, stretching quickly. His body was tight from excessively practicing with Neil in order to try and beat Ali and make sure Setsuna could be safe. He walked over to his friend’s bed. He didn’t really want to wake him. Setsuna almost looked peaceful like this, innocent even, his eyes closed and breathing even. But Tieria reached down and gently shook Setsuna’s shoulder.

“…we have to go to the dueling arena.” His voice was soft, his touch careful. “I’m sorry.”

“Not a problem. Did they say why?” Setsuna seemed to accept that without much issue, the young man sitting up and nodding before going to get himself dressed.

“No, Ribbons didn’t. But when he summons us…” They all came running.

Tieria did the same, his student council uniform tugged on and his hair combed out neatly. Once they were both ready and presentable, Tieria started leading the way to the arena. He couldn’t shake the terrible feeling his stomach, the strange clenching and nausea that was bubbling. He was a man who believed in science and fact, but his stomach was leaning very strongly toward ‘bad feeling’ and intuition.

With his mind firmly focusing on the task at hand, Tieria started guiding them up the stairs. They had a long walk. Made longer by the fact that Tieria really didn’t want to do this.

* * *

 

 

Ali was already up in the dueling arena. Just one of the perks of being him, he already knew what was going to happen. And he couldn’t wait to see the expressions on the other’s faces. He was going to get some serious satisfaction out of this. He stretched languidly, glancing over at Ribbons.

“How long do you think it’ll take for them to get here?” Ali let his back rest against the wall as he lounged.

“Soon enough. They come like obedient animals when they’re called.”

And true to Ribbons’ words, they started trickling in. Surprisingly, the first was Neil Dylandy. The vice president looked more than a little irked about being woken up in the middle of the night for seemingly nothing. They’d see soon enough. He’d expected the pretty princess and Setsuna to be the first ones up here, but he supposed it made sense for the ice princess to be dragging his heels. Kamille arrived a few seconds later, arms crossed over his chest and looking extremely salty.

But the guest of honor, if you will, arrived about five minutes later. Granted, they arrived before the time Ribbons had stated, but only by the tiniest of margins. Tieria looked incredibly disgruntled and Setsuna looked relatively normal. Ali motioned for Setsuna to come to his side, just as a show of power.

And like a lamb to the slaughter, Setsuna just walked straight over. Ali draped his arm around Setsuna’s shoulders, before leaning in and kissing the younger man on the lips. With tongue. It was a completely unnecessary gesture, Ali was certain that Tieria was already feeling small and insignificant by being dragged out of bed and forced to the dueling arena at 1 am. But this was just icing on the cake, the sour scowl on his face as well as the way his brows knitted together and his fists clenched. Perfect. Mission fucking accomplished.

If he stopped reacting so strongly, Ali might stop tormenting him. Then again, if the Pretty Princess stopped reacting, Lucky Charms and Girl’s Name would keep reacting. His fun would never end. Darn shame.

Ribbons cleared his throat, taking a few steps out into the dueling arena. “Tonight is a momentous occasion…”

* * *

 

 

Neil stood with his arms crossed tight over his chest. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like that Ribbons had them gathered, or that Ribbons was calling this a momentous occasion. And he really didn’t like that Tieria had such a grim expression plastered to his face like he had the vaguest ideas of what was going to happen. Neil had no real ideas, which didn’t have his stomach sitting happy.

No, it felt like it was trying to eat itself.

He shook his thoughts and irritation away and forced himself to focus on Ribbons’ smug face and his words. Neil needed to understand why they were, what was happening, why Ribbons looked so pleased with himself.

Because Ribbons being pleased heralded _nothing_ good. He’d been on the student council long enough to know that.

“Tonight our little rose bride takes on his biggest challenge…” Ribbons beckoned Setsuna away from Ali’s side.

Usually Neil would be pleased that Setsuna was away from Ali’s side, but going by Ribbons was a worse idea. He bit back his complaints, though he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. He really didn’t like where this was going.

The moon crept out from behind the clouds, casting unnecessarily dramatic shadows across the dueling arena. He swore he saw something funny with Setsuna’s shadow for a split second, but he passed it off as a trick of the eye. He was tired. He must be seeing things.

“Setsuna will be taking on the power to revolutionize the world…” Ribbons made a grand gesture with one arm, swords appearing out of thin air.

Neil took a step back at the sudden appearance of the swords, eyes going wide. No, that wasn’t possible. Swords didn’t just appear out of nowhere. That wasn’t how things worked. It was bewildering on many levels. He just didn’t understand the purpose of the swords, how they were floating, what they had to do with the power to revolutionize the world, how they related to _Setsuna_.

A sword drifted almost lazily into Ribbons’ hand. The look on the man’s face was nothing short of terrifying, almost enough to make Neil’s stomach turn. Ribbons’ normally angelic face was twisted into a malevolent grin. The moon had half of his face in shadow, almost making him look like a corpse.  Neil watched in detached horror as delicate fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword with what looked like _experience_ and _skill_. That only increased the dread in his gut.

And then Ribbons pointed the sword straight at Setsuna’s heart.

“What the hell are you doing??” Neil’s voice spilled out before he could stop it, his eyes wide and fists clenched. He couldn’t keep quiet about this, he wasn’t going to let Ribbons Almark kill Setsuna.

He wasn’t the only one who had shouted out, Tieria had as well. Same with Kamille. Only Ali was silent, which meant the damn fuzzy asshole probably knew what was going on going into this.

“Oh…worry not…” Ribbons glanced over at Neil, making direct eye contact. The grin deepened, the lighting making it look like a gash across his face. “I’m not going to _kill_ him, but I can’t promise that this won’t hurt.”

And with that, the sword was thrust straight through Setsuna’s heart.

Neil yelled again, starting to charge forward to help Setsuna, but was stopped by Ali basically clotheslining him. He hit the ground with a resounding thump, glaring up at the redhead. “Back off, Ali!”

“Not a chance. You’re not ruining Ribbons’ plans, Dylandy.”

He scrambled to his feet and tried to get past Ali again, only to have a fist collide with his cheekbone. Neil hit the ground again, groaning in pain. He tried to push to his feet, but couldn’t. He was too weak to stand up, too weak to save Setsuna. Too weak for anything.

He could only watch.

* * *

 

 

Setsuna was making eye contact with Ribbons when the sword ran through his heart. His mouth opened to scream, but not a sound left him. It hurt too much for him to scream. His eyes tracked over to the duelists – his friends. He could see their mouths open, vaguely hear the words leaving their mouths. He could see the horror on their faces. He watched as Neil rushed forward to try and help, only to be brutally stopped by Ali.

He closed his eyes, still trying to scream, to say anything, to plead for help, forgiveness, _anything_. But no sound came again. He could feel tears burning at the corners of his eyes.

The sword seemed to freeze him in place. Maybe it was too painful to move, maybe it actually stopped him from moving. He couldn’t actually tell.

Setsuna’s eyes went wide as the swords, hundreds of them, maybe one thousand, turned on him. They were surrounding him, all at awkward angles. His eyes tracked them, getting wider by the moment. He swallowed dryly before looking straight at Tieria. He wanted to reach out for help, he wanted to be out of this situation. He wanted to be free. He didn’t like this, it scared him!

So he held eye contact with Tieria and mouthed the words ‘help me.’

A moment later, another sword plunged through his leg, his mouth opening to scream again. Still no sound. But his hands were cramped into a claw-like position, his whole body tense and shaking. He tried to move, but nothing happened. His body wouldn’t behave, maybe it was in so much pain that he couldn’t move.

The thought was interrupted as another three swords stabbed into different body parts. He could vaguely hear the protests of his friends, the angry noises, the sound of someone crying.  His head tilted back, eyes opening. He could see the swords, they were all move toward him, all closing in on him. And he couldn’t move, he couldn’t escape. Nothing he did was working.

More swords jabbed through his body, jutting out at awkward angles. With each one that ran through him, Setsuna felt something trickling away from him, though he couldn’t figure out what it was. He assumed, blood, but none of the blades were actually stained crimson. And yet, at the same time, he could feel something rushing into him, something that made him able to withstand this. Something was keeping him alive.

His will to fight, his will to escape, it was fading away. Setsuna could feel something imposing over his own desires, something suffocating and powerful. His head lolled back as one final sword stabbed through his throat. He hadn’t been able to speak before that, but he knew his voice was utterly silenced now.

Then the pain abruptly stopped.

Setsuna opened his eyes again, expression placid. Despite the overwhelming fear he’d felt earlier, at this moment, he felt absolutely nothing. When he looked around, the duelists were all standing with horrified expressions, well, save for Ali. He had to wonder how long he’d been stabbed, how long he’d been immobilized by those thousand swords.

“Come here, my rose bride…” Ribbons’ voice cooed from a few feet away from him.

His eyes tracked to Ribbons, his head tilting to the side. He could hear whispers from the others, but their words didn’t reach him. Listening to Ribbons was one of his duties, that was drilled into his mind. He took the few steps to his side, face blank as he took the man’s arm and turned to face the duelists.

“You are dismissed. The duels will start anew in the morning. For now, the rose bride will remain with me.” Ribbons pulled Setsuna a little closer.

And Setsuna didn’t really care. He let Ribbons guide him away from the arena without any complaints.

* * *

 

 

Tieria almost collapsed to his knees when Setsuna was taken away from the dueling arena. He’d watched every ounce of what made Setsuna himself drain away with each stab. The swords had drained him of his free will. He’d watched the fight, the pain, the terror, all of it, drain from his friend’s body and eyes. He’d watched him trying to scream, silently asking for help.

And then all of it had stopped.

And Tieria had been able to do nothing to save him.

He stayed up in the dueling arena long after Kamille and Ali had trailed away. Neil had stuck around longer, but Tieria hadn’t really responded to anything he had said. He’d just sat there.

Tieria had looked after Setsuna, he’d tried his very hardest to keep him safe. He’d given him advice on how to avoid Ali, how to get out of situations. What parts of Ohtori were the best for when you needed some quiet time.

But he had completely and utterly failed in trying to protect him.

He’d anticipated and he’d failed at finding a way for Setsuna to get out of this.

The look on his friend’s face before he mouthed ‘help me’ would stick with Tieria forever.


End file.
